GOODREADINGMAGAZINE.COM
GOOD READING NOVEMBER 2013
36
REVIEWED BY GRANT HANSEN GENERAL FICTION
WOM
word of mouth
RATINGS
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RG
AUSTRALIAN
AUTHOR
Lion Heart
Justin Cartwright
This book delivers a
sophisticated attempt at
the historical detective genre.
More The Name of the Rose
than The Da Vinci Code (thank
heavens) what this story really reminded me
of was The Sultan of Byzantium by Turkish
novelist Selçuk Altun.
Lionheart begins as the story of an
unemployed Oxford graduate – Richie –
who stumbles on some papers left by his
drug-addled father. The discovery starts him
on the trail of the fragment of the true cross,
which Richard I brought back from the Holy
Land, and leads him to Jerusalem, where he
falls in love with an allur ing half-Palestinian
half-Canadian journalist called Noor.
By this point in the story Orientalist alarm
bells should be ringing. Western dreamer
finds redemption in arms of dusky maiden
is a storyline not to be attempted lightly.
Fortunately Cartwright avoids the clichés
and produces a story which by its conclusion
carr ies a real emotional punch.
My difficulty with Lionheart is the way in
which the character of Richie morphs from an
intelligent hapless bungler (a familiar and not
very interesting trope) to world-class historical
investigator with the assistance of various deus
ex machina, who put their money, contacts,
houses and, occasionally, their bodies, at his
disposal.
But the core of the story is the relationship
between Richie and Noor, which does not
end as you expect, and that makes the book
a worthwhile though confronting read.
 Bloomsbury $29.99
Infamy
Lenny Bartulin
Something about
Tasmania seems to
encourage the gothic
style of stor ytelling. Tales
about cannibalistic escaped
convicts clearly lend
themselves to a schlock hor ror treatment.
Occasionally, as in the movie Van Diemen’s
Land, this actually produces a worthwhile
outcome. But more often it produces, well,
schlock hor ror.
Infamy is a case in point. The novel starts
well and considerable narrative momentum
develops. The protagonist, Burr, is a tough
military type who shows a nascent interest
in the wife of a corrupt police magistrate.
Burr works for the humourless but efficient
Governor George Arthur, and Burr’s old friend,
the chief magistrate McQuillan. Burr’s mission
is to hunt down a convict bushranger, but he
stumbles onto something much more sinister
than mere armed robbery.
And then things go peculiar. The convict
bushranger turns out to be a megalomaniac
with imper ial aspirations.Various atrocities
are perpetrated in the Vandemonian forests.
The police magistrate develops a bad habit of
murdering people. Points of view breed like
introduced species, and the incessant switching
of viewpoints becomes seriously distracting.
Multiple points of view and parallel
storylines can be a sign of a lack of stamina in
a writer; you change the perspective frequently
and run lots of stories because there is not
much to explore in any one character. The
individual episodes become shorter as the novel
progresses in an attempt to sustain narrative
interest, but the result is strangely unsatisfying.
There are good things in this novel and
as a genre piece it may be defensible. But it
certainly is not historical fiction. The true
history of Tasmania is far more interesting and
every bit as appalling. See James Boyce’s Va n
Diemen’s Land for a compelling and revisionist
interpretation. But it is a pity when such
promising material is turned into pulp fiction.
 Allen & Unwin $29.99
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2/10/13 3:35 PM